SOCIAL SERVICES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 135, 9 June 1932, Page 9

SOCIAL SERVICES.

INQUIRY IN MELBOURNE. LABOUR COLONY PROPOSED. WORK FOR " UNEMPLOYABLES." Far-reaching recommendations concerning the methods of granting relief to the poor and indigent are contained in the report of the Victorian Parliamentary Board which recently investigated the social services. The board made a comprehensive survey of charitable activities and reached the conclusion that radical changes arc necessary. It urged that a compulsory labour colony should be established and that there should be a certain social index containing the names and records of all persons receiving charitable relief. In its report, which was submitted to the Governor-in-Council, the board stated:—"Evidence submitted to _ the board indicates that there is a considerable number of persons who are .sometimes spoken of as uncmployables. These include alcoholics, methylated spirits drinkers, drug addicts, and others who elect to live oil the bounty of voluntary charity. Experienced social workers estimate that the number of men of this type in Melbourne who are imposing on public or private benevolence is between 700 and 1000. Defaulting Breadwinners. "The board is of opinion that a compulsory labour colony should be established for the attempted reclamation of this class by the provision of healthy and appropriate occupation. The board also considers that the labour colony suggested could be used for the correctional treatment of defaulting breadwinners, provision being made for their dependents. Properly organised and soundly managed such an institution should'involve little or no burden on the Government, apart from the initial cost of establishment.

"The board considers that the suggested labour colony could also be utilised as a corrcctional institution for

the man in receipt of sustenance who, without legitimate excuse, refuses work offered. In such an event, it is suggested that the cost of maintenance of his dependents, if any, should be provided by the State. "The board has been impressed by the evidence of experienced social workers that a marked mental and physical deterioration and a lowering of tone are noticeable among many of those who are in receipt of sustenance, and urges that every effort should be made to substitute so far as possible a system of work relief in place of sustenance. The board recommends that there should be established in each municipal district a local central committee representative of all relief-giving agencies in the district. Such committees could elect representatives to a metropolitan welfare council. Confidential Social Index. "The board," the report says, "has been much impressed by the general consensus of opinion among experienced social workers in favour of the introduction of a confidential social index for the metropolitan area. Such an index is now regarded as an essential factor in the relief organisation of countless urban communities throughout the world, where family welfare work has been developed to a high stage of efficiency. This efficiency is determined to a large extent by the degree to which use is made of the social index. The common use of a social index steadily tends to build up through an alphabetical card index of the names of families and individuals a wcaltii of information, which becomes increasingly valuable to those agencies use it. Through the index they are put in touch with other agencies which have established contacts with the family or individual about whom inquiries are made. "The nucleus of a social index already exists in Melbourne m the office of the Charity Organisation Society, which has amassed records of more than 50,000 ca*es. The majority of social workers who submitted' evidence to the board expressed the view that that society was best fitted to maintain a social index, and the hoard records its concurrence in this view, with the proviso that at a later stage the index might with advantage be transferred to the control of the suggested metropolitan welfare council."